Wednesday, 7 February 2018

The Planning and Assessment
Commission has just approved open-cut mining in the beautiful Gardens of
Stone area. The information below was sent to us today by the Blue
Mountains Conservation Society.

On
Monday 5 February 2018, the independent Planning and Assessment Commission
(PAC) decided that Invincible mine can restart open-cut mining in the Gardens
of Stone area and in the former Coalpac proposal area. The area is beside the
Castlereagh Highway and will extend the Invincible’s current devastated
moonscape.

In
2014 the PAC rejected a larger open cut proposal including this area saying
that the highest and best use of the land was conservation.

Mine
owners, Manildra Group, argued that the mine should reopen to supply coal to
their Shoalhaven factory to assist in making ethanol for petrol blends.
Even though they are already using alternate coal supplies.

The
approval observes a buffer zone around nearby pagodas but, very importantly, it
does not protect the total pagoda landscape complex from permanent
destruction. (Previous PACs recognised that the slopes and associated
woodlands associated with the pagoda formations were essential for the
protection of the animals and plants including threatened species).

The
endangered Purple Copper Butterfly, ‘one of Australia’s rarest butterflies'
uses the land to be mined. However, the PAC has said mining can go ahead
and has agreed that the butterflies’ essential habitat, a Bursaria spinosa
subspecies and the associated anthills, is removed and replanted elsewhere in a
'translocation trial'. This is highly unlikely to work and will put this rare
and beautiful butterfly at further risk.

The
loss of habitat for the endangered broad headed snake will most likely be
compensated for by the mine paying money into the NSW government’s species
conservation fund. This decision will open the door to further destructive
open cut mining proposals in the area.

We
totally oppose the destruction of the conservation values of the unprotected
Gardens of Stone region. The Society will continue to seek full
protection of the Gardens of Stone Stage 2 Proposal area as State Conservation
Areas.

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

The close-knit community of Wollar has already endured a decade of suffering from nearby Wilpinjong coal mine. Now the mine owners want to expand the project to within 1.5 km of the village, spelling the end for Wollar.

Even the NSW Government admits that approving the Wilpinjong mine expansion would kill off Wollar forever. Sadly, it seems they don't care, with the NSW Planning Department recommending the mine be approved.

Please come to the rally on Tuesday 11 April and stand with the people of Wollar as they fight to save their community from coal mining.

Public meeting (PAC hearing): 10:30 am, inside the hall. The public meeting will be put on by the NSW Planning Assessment Commission. To register to speak, call (02) 9383 2115 before 1 pm Thursday 6th April.

The PAC is the government authority that will soon make the final decision on whether the mine expansion goes ahead, and this is our last chance to influence them. This is Wollar's last stand!

This is a big turnaround from previous government plans to expand coal production. The government is citing negative impacts on health as the reason for the ban. Existing mines will be allowed to operate only if they pass reviews into their health impacts.

Myanmar joins Indonesia and China in adopting a moratorium. Importantly, China’s coal use has now fallen for three years in a row, due to restrictions on burning coal, and even stronger restrictions on supply. This has both reduced emissions and pushed prices higher.
Commenting on the price spikes, Ivan Glasenberg, Chief Executive of Glencore -- a major coal mining company -- said:

I don't think any of us in this room saw it coming… Suddenly the Chinese decided they didn't like these low coal prices … we saw the effect that supply cutbacks can have on coal prices and what that did to the coal prices in China.

They're not like us with antitrust, we can't agree with other producers. But they can.

But that's wrong: ‘we’ could agree to stop building new coal mines: a global moratorium would mean higher prices, benefiting both existing mines and the climate.

The bad news: some wealthy countries are now going into reverse. The Trump administration pledges to repeal the US coal mine moratorium, among other environmental policies, and Australia’s government is proposing to spend new public money on new coal mines and new coal power plants, on top of existing subsidies:

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Resources are backing a $1 billion cheap loan to a rail line for Adani’s Carmichael coal mega-mine, to open up of the vast reserves of the Galilee Basin, one of the world’s biggest carbon bombs.